Neo-Darwinism

Neo-Darwinism, Theory of evolution that represents a synthesis of Charles Darwin’s theory in terms of natural selection and modern population genetics. The term was first used after 1896 to describe the theories of August Weismann (1834–1914), who asserted that his germ-plasm theory made impossible the inheritance of acquired characteristics and supported natural selection as the only major process that would account for biological evolution.

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February 12, 1809 Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England April 19, 1882 Downe, Kent English naturalist whose scientific theory of evolution by natural selection became the foundation of modern evolutionary studies. An affable country gentleman, Darwin at first shocked religious Victorian society by...

January 17, 1834 Frankfurt am Main November 5, 1914 Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany German biologist and one of the founders of the science of genetics, who is best known for his opposition to the doctrine of the inheritance of acquired traits and for his “germ plasm” theory, the...